The Career Clinic Podcast
Host: Ronnie Dickerson Stewart
Welcome back to The Career Clinic January Intensive.
In Episode 77, we slow things down to examine one of the most foundational and overlooked questions in career and life design:
What do you require?
Not what you want.
Not what would be nice.
But what must be true for you to show up as your best, most grounded self in this season.
This episode invites you to name your requirements honestly, without judgment or performative restraint, and introduces a powerful framework I use with executive clients: your personal Rider. When you understand what you require, you gain clarity, permission, and a roadmap for aligned decision-making in 2026 and beyond.
✔️ Why most people have never been asked what they truly require
✔️ The difference between requirements and preferences (and why it matters)
✔️ How unmet requirements create friction, burnout, and dissatisfaction
✔️ Why naming your requirements is not "rocking the boat" — it's learning how to navigate it
✔️ How your requirements evolve with your season, capacity, and priorities
Borrowed from the entertainment world, a Rider outlines the conditions that must be true for a performer to show up at their best.
In this episode, you'll learn how to apply that same thinking to your own life and career. Your Rider is not about being difficult or demanding. It's about self-awareness, sustainability, and knowing what allows you to thrive.
Your Rider becomes a filter for decisions, opportunities, partnerships, and trade-offs — now and in the future.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and answer this prompt honestly and without editing yourself:
"To exist and operate as my best possible self in 2026, I require…"
List everything:
Professional and personal
Big and small
Practical and emotional
Do not judge what comes up.
Do not worry about feasibility yet.
Naming your requirements does not mean demanding them tomorrow — it means telling yourself the truth.
Keep the list. Let it guide you. Let it protect you.
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Tomorrow in the January Intensive, we'll focus on clarifying your capacity — how to get real data about where your time and energy are actually going before you try to redesign anything.
Naming what you require isn't entitlement.It's strategy. And it's how sustainable, aligned lives and careers are built.
You're allowed to have requirements. You're allowed to honor them. And you're allowed to design your life around them.
I'll see you tomorrow.
